


Child of Typhon and Echidna

by ShowMeAHero



Series: Swing Life Away [4]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Adoption, Avengers Family, Brief and Vague Mentions of Experimental Testing, Domestic, Domestic Avengers, Domestic Fluff, Experimentation, Fluff, Gen, Hydra (Marvel), Kid Fic, M/M, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Team as Family, steve and bucky adopt a wee lil baby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-27
Updated: 2014-07-27
Packaged: 2018-02-10 15:22:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2030082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShowMeAHero/pseuds/ShowMeAHero
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the Avengers take down one of the last pieces of Hydra, there's one more person at the base than they bargained for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Child of Typhon and Echidna

**Author's Note:**

> Title inspired Greek mythology - (Lernaean) Hydra was one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna.

“This is it,” Steve whispered, and Bucky drew his gun from his waistband. Bruce unbuttoned his shirt and tugged it off, then slipped out of his shoes, leaving him barefoot in his purple stretch-pants, created by himself and Tony.

“Where is Stark?” Bucky hissed, looking over his shoulder. Iron Man flew in as if on cue, the suit almost silent.

“Keep your arm on, Barnes, I’m right here,” Tony said softly, his voice ringing in the ear pieces shoved into each of their ears. Bruce accepted the firm grip of Steve’s hand on his shoulder, the metallic hand that squeezed the back of his neck.

“You’ll do fine, Doctor,” Bucky murmured. Bruce rolled his shoulders, and Tony took the shirt from his hand.

“Tell Hulk to roar if it’s clear,” Tony reminded him, his tone light, almost joking. Bruce bounced a little on the balls of his feet before turning to Bucky.

“Do it,” Bruce instructed, and Bucky did not hesitate before he lifted his metal arm, hand curled into a fist, and struck Bruce across the face. Bruce’s head knocked to the side before snapping back, his eyes flashing green and his mouth twisting up into a smile before he ripped into the Hulk.

The location they were in - a warehouse in Montenegro - was the one of the last Hydra bases left. After years of searching, hunting, destroying, all with Bucky as the spearhead, the team was finally dismantling the last pieces of Hydra. At this moment, Bucky, Steve, Bruce, Tony, and Natasha were at the warehouse, and Clint, Sam, Kate, and Thor were right next door, in the parking garage, getting the last of the information out of the agents they found in the warehouse. A bolt of lightning illuminated the dark warehouse through its tremendous windows, and Steve grinned.

“Thor must be doing a good job,” Bucky commented in a hushed voice. Steve stifled a laugh that, if Bucky didn’t think he knew better, he would have called anxious. “You alright?”

“I just feel odd,” Steve admitted easily. “We’ve been working towards this for so long. It feels strange, to think there’s some kind of end, and we’re reaching it.”

“Hopefully, it’ll feel better once it’s over with,” Bucky replied, adjusting his grip on his gun. He edged around the corner and watched as the Hulk overturned all the machines of the room quickly, quietly, and efficiently. Tony landed on his armored feet behind Steve, trying his best not to clank around as he shifted and moved. The Hulk roared unexpectedly, and Bucky took off like a shot into the room, gun held aloft, his grip on the weapon tight. Steve followed at his flank, edging up along his right, and Tony flew over their heads, rockets warm above them.

“Clear up here,” Tony called, and the Hulk bellowed. Tony landed easily beside the Hulk, patting him on the chest with a metal palm. “Good work, big guy. Coast is clear everywhere you saw?”

Hulk nodded his massive head. “No Hydra here.”

“You’re right, no Hydra here,” Tony agreed. He flew up and around Hulk, searching the rafters while Steve moved ahead, kicking in closed doors, his shield held in front of him as he searched. He frowned, then continued, head tilted as though listening to something the rest of them couldn’t hear. The front gate of the warehouse banged open, and Bucky turned quickly, gun aimed directly at the opening at the entrance. He lowered it slightly when Natasha was the one standing there, her own gun held up. She, too, lowered it when she caught sight of Bucky. She motioned behind her, and Clint came traipsing in, Kate, Sam, and Thor right behind him.

“Our job is done,” Natasha informed Bucky as Clint took a running start and leapt up into the rafters near Tony. Kate followed him, showing off by swinging from one rafter to the next like an acrobat, and Clint rolled his eyes. Sam started surveying the wall without the doors, pulling his goggles up off his face in order to see better.

“We have retrieved all the information in the agents’ possession,” Thor added. “They are finished, and turned over to Director Coulson.”

“Excellent,” Bucky commented. He tucked his gun back into his waistband, and Natasha returned hers to its holster. Thor hefted Mjolnir over his shoulder, peering around the warehouse floor as he entered.

“Where is Captain Rogers?” Thor inquired, and Bucky looked over his shoulder, searching for Steve. The corners of his mouth turned down when he didn’t see him immediately, and he noticed all the doors were open along the inside perimeter of the building. He stepped forward.

“Steve?” Bucky called, and he heard a hesitant noise.

“Uhm,” Steve replied eloquently, and Bucky furrowed his brow in Natasha’s direction before hurrying off towards the door that Steve’s voice had come through. Steve was standing over a high table with some sort of upturned basket on it, tubes flowing every which way out of the thing, and he was lifting something out of it. Bucky stopped in the doorway, and Natasha skid right into his back. Clint thumped into her, moving too quickly to stop himself.

“Steve?” Bucky said hesitantly. Steve did not turn, instead continuing to carefully raise whatever it was in the steel-looking basket out of it. Natasha stretched up to look over Bucky’s shoulder, and Bucky entered carefully. Natasha tiptoed in behind him, moving stealthily around Bucky to the other side of the basket Steve was in front of. Bruce came in the room behind Bucky, now returned to his normal size after his stint as the Hulk. He looked exhausted, and his arms were through the sleeves of his button-down shirt, but the front was open and he was still barefoot.

“Is he okay?” Steve asked, as soon as Bruce came into his line of sight. Bruce stood at Steve’s side, and Steve passed whatever it was in his hands over to Bruce. Bucky finally moved close enough to see what was going on.

Steve was handing over a small infant to Bruce, who was making quick work of examining the naked child. He inspected the two IVs leading into the child’s arms, then carefully withdrew them from his soft light brown skin. His head was covered by curls of black, and his eyes were open as he surveyed Bruce and Steve in silence.

“They were testing on him,” Bruce commented softly. Steve made a small, distressed noise, and Bucky reached down and squeezed his hand. “They must have left him behind, leaving in a hurry like they did. Tried to do.”

“Is he going to be alright?” Steve wanted to know, and Bruce pressed two fingers to the child’s small neck, then bowed his head over the child, sniffing at him with enhanced senses.

“It’ll take some time,” Bruce informed him, “but he’ll heal. A couple of these marks on his arm are possibly infected, and his breathing’s a little labored. They did some work on him, but it’s not irreversible or permanent by any means. He must not have been here very long.”

“What do we do?” Steve asked, and Bruce shook his head. Natasha frowned, then sprinted out of the room. Bucky watched her leave, then returned his attention to Steve, who was taking the infant back from Bruce. He looked up at Bucky.

“Steve,” Bucky said, a warning clear in his tone, but it was obvious Steve was already lost.

“They were testing on him,” Steve murmured, his gaze focused sharply down on the child huddled against his chest. The boy whimpered slightly, and Steve ducked his head against his. “Like they tested on you. They wanted to make him a weapon.”

“He doesn’t have a family,” Natasha announced, returning to the room. “One of the women, Holly, answered me immediately. They stole him from an orphanage, figured no one would miss him.”

Steve finally pulled his attention away from the child, looking up at Bucky pleadingly. “He’s all alone, Buck.”

“We have three, Steve,” Bucky reminded him. “The twins aren’t even eighteen months.”

“If we don’t take him, we’ll have to turn him over to the American system, and we both know that could end either really well or really badly for him,” Steve argued. “With us, Buck, he’s going to have a great life. You know he is. The girls love us, you’re great with them, and he-”

“Fine,” Bucky interrupted, and Steve’s whole face lit up. He leaned in, pressing his mouth to Bucky’s fiercely, and Bucky barely got to reach his hand up to touch Steve’s face before they pulled apart.

“He looks like he’s Indian,” Bruce commented, still looking over the child in Steve’s arms. “Maybe South Indian. He’s in pretty good health, but we should still bring him in to S.H.I.E.L.D. medical, and you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you, to go through adopting him.”

“We can do it,” Steve assured him. He turned back to Bucky, then nudged at Bucky’s hands until they were up. Bucky took the infant gingerly, looking down over him. The baby squirmed, readjusting himself.

“He’s gonna need a name,” Bucky spoke up, and Steve grinned happily at him.

* * *

“So, he’s my little brother,” Sarah repeated carefully, and Steve nodded, lifting her up so she could see the baby through the little window in S.H.I.E.L.D. medical. Bucky was sitting inside, on a little folding chair next to the baby’s hospital bassinet, and he waved at Sarah and Steve. Both of them waved back.

“He’s your little brother, that’s exactly right,” Steve confirmed. Sarah peered through the window curiously, leaning forward to get a closer look. Her dark brown braid fell over her shoulder, and her blue eyes scanned the scene before her carefully.

“Is he sick?” Sarah asked, and Steve smiled when her head swiveled to look at him.

“He’s getting much better,” Steve assured her. “He’s going to be just fine.”

Sarah looked down over Steve’s shoulder at the twins in their stroller behind him. “Are Maggie and Winnie going to meet him, too?”

“They are, but they’re too little to really understand right now like you can, so we’ll wait until he’s out of the doctor’s to introduce them,” Steve explained to her. She nodded solemnly.

“But he’s going to be okay?”

“Absolutely, one-hundred-percent,” Steve promised, and Sarah wrapped her arms around his neck tightly, tucking her head against his chest as she watched Bucky lift the baby up out of the bassinet and carry him over to the window so Steve and Sarah could get a closer look.

“What’s his name?” Sarah asked. “Does he have one?”

“Seamus,” Steve answered. “You can call him Shay, though. Like a nickname, like Maggie or Winnie.”

“Shay’s a nice name,” Sarah commented, waving at the baby again.

“Seamus Samuel Grant Barnes-Rogers,” Steve murmured, and Sarah grinned.

“He’s got two middle names, like me,” Sarah declared cheerfully, and Steve nodded.

“You’re right, he does,” Steve agreed. “Isn’t that exciting?”

“Yeah.” Sarah reached out and pressed her palm flat against the glass. “Hi, Shay. I hope you feel better soon.”

Bucky lifted Seamus up so he was held upright against his chest, his back to Bucky’s front, and he raised Seamus’ small hand to place against the glass on the other side of his sister’s hand.

**Author's Note:**

> You can follow me on Twitter at [@nicoIodeon](https://twitter.com/nicoIodeon) or on Tumblr at [andillwriteyouatragedy](http://andillwriteyouatragedy.tumblr.com/).
> 
>  **EDIT:** Yes, this used to be part of the series [The Smithsonian](http://archiveofourown.org/series/94757). This (and the other pieces with their children) were so tonally different that I decided to separate them and put them in their own series. Ta-da! Enjoy.


End file.
